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Texas House Passes Abortion Restrictions, Senate Could Vote As Early As Friday

Veronica Zaragovia
/
KUT News

The Texas House of Representatives has approved new abortion limits less than two weeks after Senate Republicans failed to finish work on the bill amid a filibuster and raucous protests.

According to KUT, the House passed HB 2 on a vote of 96 to 49 Wednesday morning.  

A final vote could be held as early as Friday in the Senate. The House voted mostly along party lines Wednesday on what has become signature GOP legislation.

Lawmakers spent more than 10 hours debating it Tuesday, and Republicans rejected every attempt to amend the bill. Throngs of protesters were missing for Wednesday's mostly procedural vote after days of protests by both supporters and opponents.

The bill requires doctors to have admitting privileges at nearby hospitals, only allow abortions in surgical centers and ban abortions after 20 weeks.

Courtney Collins has been working as a broadcast journalist since graduating from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University in 2004. Before coming to KERA in 2011, Courtney worked as a reporter for NPR member station WAMU in Washington D.C. While there she covered daily news and reported for the station’s weekly news magazine, Metro Connection.